“The Ministry of Justice has completed the evacuation of 2,400 prisoners from the facility. They are convicted of terrorism and will be transferred to prisons located in central and north provinces,” Iraqi media cited al-Shimmari as saying.

The prison, located about 20 kilometers from Baghdad in Abu Ghraib, was closed due to security concerns, as it was situated in “a restive area”. Abu Ghraib staff and guards will be relocated to other prisons in Baghdad.

The penitentiary facility received its ill reputation during the rule of President Saddam Hussein. Thousands of people were executed there, and after the US invasion of Iraq little had changed.

The prison in Abu Ghraib was in the center of a scandal in 2004, when US TV channel CBS aired a program about the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers. The US media later published several materials with photos confirming the Americans’ participation in torture and abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib.